The Mad Hatters craft fair was in the Buttermarket on Saturday.
The stall holders always have an awesome array of hats, but this time there were some witches and a seven foot tall Frankenstein's monster with a green head!
Tonight it's raining heavily, but kids are still going out to Trick or Treat.
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To mark the occasion, Kelvyn Jenkins had asked Simon Addison to come and play his bagpipes. Simon is the official piper for Hereford, and pipes at official occasions there, as well as being a member of a pipe band. This was the first time he'd been invited to pipe in the middle of Hay, though - and not only in the middle; right up on the viewing platform at the top of the Castle!
Here he was playing Amazing Grace.
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It's been beautifully re-decorated inside - but watch out for the Very Low Beam across the middle of the room!
I had a lovely chat with Aidan Saunders, who makes the prints, and has also illustrated some stories of the Mabinogion for children. He told me that, although he grew up in Wales, he had never heard of the legends until he moved to London, at which point he became fascinated with them.
[Edited to add: he also stocks Pollock's Toy Theatres, as mentioned in the blog Spitalfields Life - from their famous Covent Garden shop]
I went to an open day at Salem Chapel yesterday. The new owners have been doing extensive renovation, and it's now opening for business as a yoga studio.
The entrance is through the old chapel schoolroom, which is where the model railway layout used to be displayed. They've opened it out so it looks much bigger, with the reception desk as you come in and a kitchen in the back corner. The toilets are at the back.
From the reception desk, there are steps up to the main chapel building, and a sign to take off outdoor shoes before entering. They've put a beautiful new floor in. The pulpit area is still there at the far end, but the organ and harmonium are long gone.
I talked to Pete, one of the owners and teachers at the yoga centre. The style they teach is called Iyengar yoga, and apparently beginners start with standing poses, and gradually move on to sitting and stretching.
The chapel will also be available for workshops and special events on the afternoons of Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
They even teach yoga online, via Zoom!
[Edited to add: I looked back at previous entries in the blog, and I really hadn't realised how long ago Geoff Evans died - it was 2011, and he had been working on a dream to turn the chapel into an arts centre]
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They're selling cakes and kitchen and home items.
Velvet Fern still have a shop in Ludlow.
Hay Castle is celebrating on Sunday - from 2pm to 7pm there will be lots going on, including guided tours of the Castle and the Printed Line exhibition, which are not so unusual, but there will also be a 15 piece brass ensemble in the Great Hall, a wizard making balloon sculptures, a hunt for Matilda's emeralds for the kids, a pop-up exhibition, an illustrated talk on Hay's independence, and previously unseen photos from the Richard Booth archive! Plus a fire show, hot dogs and mulled wine. Everything except the hot dogs is free, and the drinkers decide what to pay for the mulled wine.
This is to celebrate the completion of the work on the Castle.
Earlier in the day, Brecon Boujies will be in the Buttermarket, with vintage clothes, jewellery and gifts.
I really enjoyed the harp concert at St Mary's Church last night.
Ruth Wall was playing three different harps over the evening. Her main instrument was the Scottish lever harp, a modern black instrument with a mellow sound that she and the composer Graham Fitkin could do incredible electronic stuff to, like layering the sound so that it seemed as if several harps were playing. He composed some of the music played during the evening, or arranged traditional tunes.
Ruth Wall also played the Scottish clarsach, a round bodied small harp which is wire-strung, so is played with the fingernails plucking the strings, rather than the pads of the fingers.
And then there was the Renaissance bray harp, which was strung with horsehair and had a little piece of holly at the bottom of each string to make a buzzing noise when the string was plucked. This sort of harp was common all over Europe, and would probably have been the type of harp played at Hay Castle in the Middle Ages.
So the three harps sounded quite distinct from each other.
Most of the music was from the Scottish Highlands, but one tune played on the bray harp was from Iran, in honour of Yalda Night, when the days start getting longer in the depths of winter, and it was interesting to hear such a different style of music from the medieval tune that had been played earlier, on the same instrument.
Some of the traditional harp music had been shared with bagpipers - one of the tunes that Ruth Wall had composed was based on pibrochs, which are normally played on the bagpipes.
The theme of the evening was migration - of homo sapiens through our entire history, starting with early humans migrating out of Africa. The theme also covered animal and bird migration, like the skuas passing over the isle of Uist in one of the modern pieces (based on an old Gaelic air).
And straight from a complex electronic piece, Ruth and Graham went into one of the most basic types of music possible - rhythmic clapping, and hitting other parts of the body. In the second half, this body percussion was combined with whistling and words in I Swear, I Swear, I Swear, which was based on a conversation Graham had overheard on a train, between a group of young women.
The church was beautifully lit for the performance, but unfortunately the central heating wasn't working, so only Ruth on stage had a small electric heater! In pride of place just behind the performance area was the wooden statue of Our Lady which was floated down the Wye earlier this year, complete with a light up halo!
Up coming concerts from Hay Music are:
13th November - Lore Lixenberg, a mezzo-soprano, with Bartosz Glowacki on accordion
2nd December - HEXAD, an eight voice a cappella choir giving a Christmas concert entitled Music for Queens of Heaven and Earth. This concert will be at Hay Castle, and the narrator for the evening is Peter Florence.
Next year, Jayson Gillham will be playing piano at St Marys on 22nd January, and Toby Carr will be playing theorbo and lute with an early music ensemble and two sopranos at St Marys on 26th February.
We had good weather on Tuesday for sightseeing, and I had to take my family round Hay Castle. They hadn't seen the renovations before, and they were very impressed.
As an engineer, Peter wanted to know where the grey bricks came from, that are used in the modern rebuild part of the renovation. They also rather enjoyed the little film in the old wine cellar - we arrived just as it started. They also enjoyed the costumes - especially trying on the crown!
Life drawing was going on in the educational room on the first floor, and the exhibition space at the top of the building is hosting a free exhibition of Printing Art. There are some famous names among the artists - Picasso, Lucien Freud, Bridget Riley - but my sister's family are not fans of contemporary art, and we were taking it rather less seriously than we might have done. One lady who was obviously taking it very seriously looked quite disapprovingly at us! We were all fascinated by the Tube map near the door, though - where the stations had been replaced by philosophers, comedians, Chinese leaders, and people like King Zog of Albania!
Unfortunately, building work was still taking place at the top of the Castle, so we couldn't go up to the viewing platform this time.
Then it was off to Hereford, and I got to see the road that isn't the bus route for a change! We parked at the leisure centre and walked into the centre from there.
I intended to take them to the Koffie Pot for a coffee before we started walking round, but it's completely changed since I was last there. It's become a noodle and sushi bar! It was also still using a lockdown method of ordering and paying, by scanning a QR code, which none of us felt like working out how to use. Peter (engineer) noticed the new pumps that had been put in after the last big flood came right over the wall and flooded the Koffie Pot and the courtyard, and the slots for extra hoarding to be put up to raise the height of the wall if it was needed.
We didn't fancy noodles, so we went on to the Cloister Cafe at the cathedral and sat in the sunshine to eat sandwiches and drink coffee, which was very pleasant. Then we wandered round the cathedral itself. I showed my sister the Treherne stained glass, and the SAS window, but - not a big fan of contemporary art. She was fascinated by the deeply carved gravestones round the back of the high altar, though, which were similar to ones she had seen on holiday in Holland, and they liked the bright colours of the shrine to St Thomas Cantilupe. There was an art exhibition there, too, of pictures inspired by the Holocaust, and although it was modern art again, those pictures were very powerful, and were appreciated. They also liked the knight with three legs!
Our last visit of the afternoon was the Old House, which costs £3.50 to get in, apart from the teenager, who got in free as a student. This has been renovated since my last visit, and they have done a wonderful job. There are cloth wall hangings in the bedrooms, including one set that tells the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, and as you go round you can pick anything up, and sit on the beds. They had a lot of costumes to try on, too, and they had great fun with the seventeenth century hats! One of the beds has newly embroidered hangings, and a sampler gave the names of all the embroiderers, and how many hours they'd spent on the work.
On the way back to Hay we drove along the Golden Valley, and tried to find Arthur's Stone, but we missed the side turn and ended up in Bredwardine instead (to be fair, we were being quite optimistic in thinking the camper van could make it up those back roads).
The first evening that my sister and her family came to visit, we decided to treat ourselves to a meal in Hay. As we walked up throught town (it was a Monday) we found that Tomatitos and Kilverts were both closed, but the Blue Boar was open, so we went in there.
The new menu is a little bit pricey, but the portions are generous, and we all enjoyed the meal. The teenager had a cheeseburger and fries, Peter and I had the Italian meatballs, and my sister (who has a cheese allergy) had the venison bourguignon. They are not real ale fans, so stuck with the Stowford Press cider and Perroni, and I drank Timothy Taylor Landlord, which was very good.
Strange to think that, the first time I took the family out to eat in Hay, the teenager was a toddler, and now he's old enough to drink alcohol!
There was a good crowd at the Blue Boar yesterday afternoon to remember Mollie Lord after her funeral at the Humber Woodland of Remembrance. Tea, coffee and sandwiches, cake and quiche were available along one side of the bar, where there's a raised area at the back with tables. Some of the people there had known her in London or Brighton, before she came to Hay. Sara shared a lot of similar interests with Mollie, Lyn had mentored her writing, John ran the social dreaming group that she contributed to, and I saw Janine from the Hay Theatre Group, and Sean, and several other familiar faces.
There were some spare orders of service that were given out, and the reading that had been chosen was typical of Mollie, who was devoted to all the dogs she had over the years. It was from The Journey by Crystal Ward Kent, and was about how much you can learn about life from your dog. (Mollie's latest dog has been taken by her daughter).
Father Richard shared a story about Mollie, when she said she had met God on the Warren - to which he replied: "How's He keeping?"
She said she had been sitting on a bench, and a sheep came up to her and laid its head on her knee, and she felt that she had met God.
John Clare said that she was the most prodigious dreamer he had ever encountered, in all his years of running the social dreaming group. She kept notebooks full of her dreams, and he recounted a couple to us (in one, she was knighted for services to lobster-kind!). John is also an artist, and encouraged her in her work - she held an exhibition of her work at the Globe.
We also learned that she had had a difficult childhood, as both her parents committed suicide. The third person to speak had grown up with Mollie - they had played together, and gone to night clubs together, and she said she felt that she had lost a sister.
My sister has been visiting with her family.
They have a camper van, and usually they stay on the edge of town in Mr Like's field - but this time they have upgraded to a larger van, and they were worried that it might sink in the field, so they looked for somewhere with hard standing.
They chose Ashbrook camp site, a little way outside Hay on the Brecon road, and they picked me up on the way out to it.
The view across the Wye valley is beautiful, and there's a wooded hill behind the camp site.
It wasn't very busy, but there were a few caravans there. While I was there, we used the toilet block, and it was spotlessly clean and well kept. The chap in charge also offered the use of a cable if the cable they had with the van didn't reach the power point, which was a little way off at the edge of the field.
We decided, perhaps foolishly, to walk back into Hay. There is a narrow verge, but it is quite a busy and fast road, so it was a bit of a relief when we got to the edge of Hay where the footpath starts. They stayed in Hay all afternoon, and we had a meal out in the Blue Boar, so it was dark by the time they were ready to walk back again. They had torches and a flashing bike light with them, and the road wasn't very busy by then, but they didn't think they would try it again.
But the night was clear, and the stars overhead were magnificent.
Mollie Lord was well known around Hay, usually seen out walking with her dog. I remember going to her book launch at Booths a few years ago, and she also exhibited her art in Hay.
She died last month, and her family have announced on Facebook that they are holding a quiet family funeral, but after that there will be a gathering to remember Mollie at the Blue Boar, at 3.30pm on 19th October. There will be refreshments, and they have asked people to wear something bright.
The EE phone mast is up and running again!
So I was able to phone my Young Man last night, rather than relying on brief messages on Facebook.
The EE mobile phone network has been down in the Hay area for about a week now, and as far as I can see, there's still no signal.
To be honest, I didn't notice for the first couple of days, but then I saw people talking about it on the Hay Community Facebook page. Some of them said that they'd contacted EE and got a discount, but the only way to contact EE seemed to be by phone. I only got a mobile because there is no landline to my new flat, and I can't phone from work - some people said they'd had to stay on the line for an hour before they got sorted out.
So this lunchtime I went into the EE office in Hay, to see if they had a way of contacting EE that we lesser mortals don't have access to.
It seems that they do not. The only advice they had was to phone EE - all they do is sell the products. They aren't able to pass information from customers back to EE. When I explained that I couldn't phone EE, the only suggestion they could offer was that I should borrow someone else's phone.
It isn't the fault of the girls in the office - the fault lies with EE, who should have given them some information to pass on to customers.
Talking about this later to my colleague at work, she said that she is with Three, and they don't have a signal either, and a passing customer said that he's with BT, and he can't get a signal, either - so it isn't even as easy as borrowing someone else's phone!
So that's the situation at the moment.
They set up the table at 10am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and never know what they'll be given to give away - but whatever it is, is saved from going into landfill.
It's a long time since I made it into Brecon, but there's a new exhibition coming up that looks very tempting. The Found Gallery on the Bulwark are putting on the exhibition, called Coming in from the East, and one of the featured artists is Richard Greatrex, from Hay, with a collection of photographs he took in Japan, inspired by traditional Japanese art. He also has a book of the photographs available, price £20.
There are also oil paintings by Sue Vaughan Williams, pottery from Pamela Thorby, wood carving by Chris Pye, textiles by Jennie Jackson, and geishas in mosaic by Maureen Richardson - another well-known local artist. She no longer makes paper, which was her career for many years, as she is now in her nineties, so she has turned her creativity to making mosaic pictures instead.
There is also jewellery from Chrissie Nash and wooden Christmas ornaments by Faye Lavery Griffiths.
The exhibition opens on 18th October.
This is Geddes Gallery, in the spot near the Clock Tower which was once part of Rose's Books, and most recently was a small gym. It was also, briefly, a gin palace! I had a brief look inside, and there seems to be a wide variety of art. They're still unpacking, and the owner said he was getting shelving in the side room to store the spare stock.
Scrolling through Facebook, I discovered a scheme to prevent food waste in Hay.
Zero Waste Hay pick up food from the Co-op and other local shops that would otherwise be thrown away. They are also looking for spare homegrown produce. They set up their stall in the Cheesemarket at 10am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and anyone can come along to help themselves, to stop good food going to landfill.
The first time I can get there is Friday - I wonder what they'll be offering then!
